Gilman

Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Gilman has been given to 935 babies in the U.S. since 1887. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1918, with 34 recorded.

Babies named Gilman, 1993

1 in 628,000

Gilman over time, 1880–2025

Boys

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gilman: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gilman means

Gilman is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Gilman is used in Albanian.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 935 boys were recorded with the name Gilman between 1887 and 1993. Its highest annual count was 34 in 1918; its best national rank was #862 in 1887.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Gilman?

Gilman had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1993, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1993: 1 in 628,000; 6 of 3,768,729 births
Among boys only: 1 in 327,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1993: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 435,382 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Gilman sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1993 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 435,382 children born in 1993 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gilman. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gilmans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gilman was born before 1932 — so the typical Gilman is around 93 today.

Median birth year: 1932; About 93 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 22.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 1.9%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 158; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 22.0% of all recorded uses (206).

Is Gilman rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1918 (34)
Years since peak: 107; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 37.0% average annual change
Best rank ever: #862; 1887

Spellings of Gilman

Gilman is not the most common spelling — Milan is, with 26.3% against Gilman's 1.3%.

Milan26.3%18,608
German14.6%10,290
Dillan9.9%6,994
Dilan8.5%6,034
Gian7.1%5,033
Tillman5.3%3,732
Ilan4.6%3,231
Kilian3.8%2,690

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Gilman is used

Across 1910–2025, Gilman was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 4,545 boys, against 1 in 40,927 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

022 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Maine1 in 4,545
2Minnesota1 in 100,000
3North Dakota1 in 100,000
4Wisconsin1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Gilman has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gilman by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #862; 1887
Peak year: 1918; 34 that year
First recorded: 1887
Last recorded: 1993
All-time count: 935
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Gilman

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Cayman Bowman Colman Harman Luqman Gilmer Gillis Kalman Zalman Rahman Ferman Gildardo Othman Whitman Chapman Ousman Gilles Gilmore Nachman Uthman Salman Gilford Giles Tilman

Sibling names for Gilman

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Winnifred Johnie Ray Lida Maybelle Floy Mathilda Verda

For a brother

Valentine Ellsworth Orval Buster Sol Omer Ferdinand Regis

Explore around Gilman

Top names of 1918, Gilman's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1887 Boys' names starting with G Albanian Names